When clients bring inspiration photos

'Is it alright if I show you some photos that I would like to do for my session?'

This question gets asked by nearly every client that comes in. I do have the 2% that tell me to 'be free, my child... run with the wind', but the other 98% usually want to give me a few images that they like for the purpose of recreating or inspiring.

There are many opinions on this out there, but they are just opinions. My own take is that I will gladly accept inspiration images from clients. I can't – and don't – guarantee that each image will be attended to, but I can guarantee to look at each image and use that as a litmus test for where your comfort level and style-level lies. There are some photos that I will absolutely recreate for a client, but they'll have my own creative glitter all over it (see below). Even though the image may have been created 1000 times before, it's only going to be created for my clients ONCE.

There are boundaries, though, and if ever I have someone want to recreate the entire spread from a 150-pin-long Pinterest board, well then I'll probably ask her to purchase the 150 different outfits and foot the bill for the rental of a facility that houses plush couches, brick ruins, white leather, marble columns, and beach sand. :)

The verdict? Bring in the pictures, or don't. It's my job to create a uniquely beautiful session that showcases your OWN beauty no matter what is brought in.

In this instance, my client brought in some images that she loved and really wanted to use as inspiration for her shoot. This image of Kim Kardashian in pearls was her favorite and one that she very much wanted to duplicate. I was up for the challenge, so we did it!

I love the result, and this is one of her favorites from the shoot. I also like mine better :) Sorry, Kim.